Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is now recovering after skull surgery in Birmingham.
Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls’ rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital said a titanium plate and cochlear implant were successfully attached in two operations on Saturday.
A spokesperson said she was continuing to recover and was in a stable condition after the surgery, which lasted five hours.
They said the medical team was “very pleased” with the progress Malala Yousafzai had made so far and that she was awake and talking to staff and members of her family.
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is now recovering after skull surgery in Birmingham
Malala Yousafzai had been discharged as an inpatient from the hospital in January after undergoing weeks of specialist treatment.
The Queen Elizabeth is also home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, which has treated many of the injured servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan.
In December the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, visited her at the hospital.
Malala Yousafzai’s family are currently living in the West Midlands.
Her father has been appointed education attaché at the Consulate of Pakistan for the next three years.
Chris Kyle, the Iraq veteran and ex-US Navy Seal known as the deadliest sniper in US history, has been shot dead on a Texas shooting range, reports say.
His body was found at Rough Creek Lodge range on Saturday with that of another man. A suspect was arrested.
Chris Kyle, 38, wrote the 2012 bestseller American Sniper, about the psychology of a sniper, in which he said that he had killed more than 250 people.
He served four tours of duty in Iraq and was decorated for bravery.
The gunman opened fire at about 15:30 local time then fled in a pick-up truck belonging to one of the victims, local media reported.
Erath County Sheriff Tommy Bryant said the motive for the killings was unclear, and was unable to explain how the two men were shot.
But he said a 25-year-old suspect was detained five hours later more than 70 miles (110 km) from the scene.
Chris Kyle, the Iraq veteran and ex-US Navy Seal known as the deadliest sniper in US history, has been shot dead on a Texas shooting range
Scott McEwen, who co-authored the book with Chris Kyle, said: “It just comes as a shock and it’s staggering to think that after all Chris has been through, that this is how he meets his end, because there are so many ways he could have been killed.”
Chris Kyle, a former cowboy, is regarded as the most prolific sniper the US has ever seen.
Official Pentagon figures say he killed 160 people, but he estimated the total was 255.
According to army intelligence, he was nicknamed “The Devil” by Iraqi insurgents, who put a $20,000 bounty on his head.
He appeared to show little remorse for his victims.
“Every person I killed I strongly believe that they were bad,” he said in an interview in 2012.
“When I do go face God there is going to be lots of things I will have to account for but killing any of those people is not one of them.”
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt called China an Internet menace that backs cyber-crime for economic and political gain in a new book, The New Digital Age, due for release in April.
The New Digital Age reportedly brands China “the world’s most active and enthusiastic filterer of information”.
China is “the most sophisticated and prolific” hacker of foreign companies, according to a review obtained by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
China denies allegations of hacking.
Beijing has been accused by several governments, foreign companies and organizations of carrying out extensive cyber espionage for many years, seeking to gather information and to control China’s image.
The New Digital Age analyses how China is dangerously exploiting an Internet that now permeates politics, business, culture and other aspects of life, the WSJ says.
It quotes the book as saying: “The disparity between American and Chinese firms and their tactics will put both the government and the companies of the United States at a distinct disadvantage.”
This, it says, is because Washington “will not take the same path of digital corporate espionage, as its laws are much stricter (and better enforced) and because illicit competition violates the American sense of fair play”.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt called China an Internet menace that backs cyber-crime for economic and political gain in a new book, The New Digital Age, due for release in April
The book argues that Western governments could do more to follow China’s lead and develop stronger relationships between the state and technology companies.
States will benefit if they use software and technology made by trusted companies, it suggests.
“Where Huawei gains market share, the influence and reach of China grow as well,” the WSJ quoted the authors as writing.
The WSJ this week said its computer systems had been hacked by specialists in China who were trying to monitor its China coverage.
It was the second reported attack on a major US news outlet in days, as the New York Times reported earlier that Chinese hackers had “persistently” penetrated its systems for the last four months.
China’s foreign ministry dismissed the New York Times’ accusations as “groundless” and “totally irresponsible”.
Sarai Sierra, a US woman who disappeared last month while on holiday in Turkey, has been found dead in Istanbul, reports say.
The body of Sarai Sierra was discovered near Istanbul’s ancient walls, Turkish media report.
Police have arrested nine people in connection with the case, the state-run Anadolu agency says.
Sarai Sierra, a 33-year-old mother of two from New York, had been missing since January 21, the day before she was due to arrive back in New York City.
She had left for Turkey two weeks earlier and made short trips to the Netherlands and Germany, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Police had released security camera footage showing Sarai Sierra at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport before she flew to Amsterdam.
Her body is reported to have been found close to the Galata Bridge, a popular tourist site spanning Istanbul’s Golden Horn waterway.
Shortly before her disappearance, Sarai Sierra had allegedly told her family that she planned to visit the bridge.
Although police have not yet commented on the case, reports say the American may have been stabbed to death.
Sarai Sierra, a US woman who disappeared last month while on holiday in Turkey, has been found dead in Istanbul
Andalou says she may have been killed at a different location before her body was hidden near the city walls.
The US embassy in Ankara had been working with Turkish authorities to help track down the missing woman.
Police in Istanbul set up a special unit to find Sarai Sierra, AP says.
Her husband and her brother had also travelled to Istanbul to join the search.
The case attracted extensive media coverage in Turkey where the disappearance of tourists is rare.
At least 30 people have been killed after gunmen and a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, police say.
A city official told AFP news agency that militants had tried to seize the compound but were unsuccessful.
No group has said it carried out the attack.
Kirkuk is ethnically mixed, and at the centre of a dispute between the Iraqi government and Kurds over oil and land rights.
Two weeks ago at least 10 people were killed in a suicide bomb attack on the offices of the Kurdish Democratic Party in the city.
Sunni insurgents linked to al-Qaeda have been blamed for much of the recent violence in Iraq.
However, there has been a relative calm in recent days.
At least 30 people have been killed after gunmen and a suicide bomber attacked a police headquarters in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk
The attack took place during morning rush hour in the centre of Kirkuk, police Brig-Gen Natah Mohammed Sabr told AFP.
At least 70 people were injured as militants reportedly dressed in police uniforms and armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests rushed the main gate of the headquarters after a bomb was detonated.
They threw grenades but were killed before they reached the building of the headquarters.
The attack caused massive damage to nearby buildings, Brig-Gen Sabr added.
Traffic in the city centre was stopped, and offices in the area were evacuated.
With its massive oil reserves, Kirkuk is the most bitterly contested of Iraq’s disputed territories.
It houses a mixture of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen.
The Kurds want to incorporate it into their largely autonomous region, while Arabs and Turkmen oppose any change to its current status, ruled directly from Baghdad.
Correspondents say militants often exploit differences between the Iraqi and Kurdish security forces by launching deadly attacks in the city.
Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the classic toy Etch A Sketch, has died last month in Paris, at the age of 86.
Andre Cassagnes died in Paris on January 16, the Ohio Art Company, the US-based firm that made the toy, said.
He came up with the idea for a mechanical toy that creates erasable drawings by twisting two dials in the late 1950s, while working as an electrical technician.
Picked by the Ohio Art Company at a toy fair in 1959, Etch A Sketch went on to sell more than 100 million copies.
Etch A Sketch, with its familiar red-frame, grey screen and two white dials, allows children to draw something and shake it away to start again.
Andre Cassagnes saw the potential for the toy when he noticed, while working with metal powders, that marks in a coating of aluminium powder could be seen from the other side of a translucent plate.
Andre Cassagnes, the inventor of the classic toy Etch A Sketch, has died last month in Paris, at the age of 86
The Ohio Art Company spotted the invention at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in 1959, and the next year it became the top-selling toy in the United States.
“Etch A Sketch has brought much success to the Ohio Art Company, and we will be eternally grateful to Andre for that,” the firm’s president Larry Killgallon said.
“His invention brought joy to so many over such a long period of time.”
The toy may seem old-fashioned in an age of tablet computers, but the Ohio Art Company says it still has a steady market, thanks in no small part to its appearance in the Toy Story movies.
And it became a feature of last year’s US presidential campaign, when an aide to Republican candidate Mitt Romney likened his campaign to the toy.
“You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again,” said campaign spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, a comment seized upon by his rivals as evidence that Mitt Romney was willing to change his position to get elected.
Etch A Sketch has been named by the American Toy Industry Association as one of the most memorable toys of the 20th century.
As well as being the man behind Etch A Sketch, Andre Cassagnes also developed a reputation as the most successful designer of competition kites in France during the 1980s.
Ben Affleck has won 2013 DGA’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Argo, further sealing its status as best-picture front-runner at this year’s Oscars.
Saturday’s prize also normally would make Ben Affleck a near shoo-in to win best-director at the February 24 Oscars, since the Directors Guild recipient nearly always goes on to claim the same prize at Hollywood’s biggest night.
But Ben Affleck surprisingly missed out on an Oscar directing nomination, along with several other key favorites, including fellow Directors Guild contenders Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty and Tom Hooper for Les Miserables.
Ben Affleck’s Oscar snub has not hurt Argo and may even have earned it some favor among awards voters as an underdog favorite.
Argo has dominated other awards since the Oscar nominations.
Ben Affleck has won 2013 DGA’s Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for Argo
“I don’t think that this makes me a real director, but I think it means I’m on my way,” said Ben Affleck, who won for just his third film behind the camera.
The Directors Guild honors continued Hollywood’s strange awards season, which could culminate with a big Oscar win for Ben Affleck’s Argo. The guild’s prize for best director typically is a final blessing for the film that goes on to win best-picture and director at the Oscars.
Ben Affleck can go only one-for-two at the Oscars, though. While Argo is up for best picture, the director’s branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences overlooked him for a directing slot.
Backstage at the Directors Guild honors, Ben Affleck said he had nothing but respect for the academy and that “you’re not entitled to anything”.
The winners of the Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2012 were announced tonight during the 65th Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles.
FEATURE FILM
Ben Affleck – Argo
DOCUMENTARY FILM
Malik Bendjelloul – Searching For Sugar Man
MOVIES FOR TELEVISION AND MINI-SERIES
Jay Roach – Game Change (HBO)
DRAMATIC SERIES
Rian Johnson – Breaking Bad, “Fifty One” (AMC)
COMEDY SERIES
Lena Dunham – Girls, “Pilot” (HBO)
Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards for 2012
MUSICAL VARIETY
Glenn Weiss – 66th Annual Tony Awards (CBS)
REALITY PROGRAMS
Brian Smith – Master Chef, “Episode #305” (Fox)
DAYTIME SERIALS
Jill Mitwell – One Life To Live, “Between Heaven and Hell” (ABC)
CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS
Paul Hoen – Let it Shine (Disney Channel)
COMMERCIALS
Alejandro G. Inarritu, Anonymous Content Best Job, Proctor and Gamble – Wieden + Kennedy
Hôtel de Glace in Quebec, Canada, is a palatial building constructed entirely out of ice.
Hôtel de Glace is built each year with a new themed design out of hundreds of thousands of tons of ice and snow.
The hotel opened its doors on January, kicking off its 13th season.
2013 theme was inspired by Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth, focusing on the natural beauty of the winter season.
The walls were meticulously crafted to transport visitors to a winter wonderland fit for an ice queen filled with ornate decor and sculpted furnishings, according to the site My Modern Met.
Tourists eager to visit the splendid ice palace can spend the night, get a drink at the Ice Bar, or even tie the knot in its unique chapel, the hotel has expanded the number of rooms and suites to 44 from its previous 36.
Hôtel de Glace will remain open through March 24, offering packages ranging from $399.50 to $549.50 per person.
This year’s photos of Hôtel de Glace were captured by photographer Xavier Dachez .
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Hôtel de Glace in Quebec, Canada, is a palatial building constructed entirely out of ice (Photo Xavier Dachez)
Kathy Etchingham, Jimi Hendrix’s former girlfriend, recalls their relationship, as fans of guitar legend anticipate the release of a new album featuring 12 previously unreleased studio tracks in March.
In September 1966, a DJ and hairdresser from Derby walked into the Scotch of St James nightclub in London.
“There were stairs winding down to the basement and everybody was leaning over the banisters to listen to this guy sitting in the corner of the club playing,” remembers Kathy Etchingham, who was then just 20.
“They were enthralled.”
Jimi Hendrix, who was then just 24 and newly arrived from New York. His talent was obvious, but at this stage his new English manager, Chas Chandler, hadn’t even found him a backing band.
When the set was over, Chas Chandler introduced Kathy Etchingham to Hendrix. With his army jacket, Afro hair and flowery shirts, the black American was unlike any man she had ever met before.
“He just looked unusual – stunning really,” she says. “He was fresh and he had a very soft sort of American accent.”
Within minutes, Jimi Hendrix was whispering: “I think you’re beautiful” in her ear.
Kathy Etchingham acknowledges the line was corny, but she says that coming from a man like Jimi Hendrix, it worked.
Within hours, they were heading down Piccadilly towards Jimi Hendrix’s hotel.
Jimi Hendrix, unused to London traffic, was nearly hit by a car when he looked the wrong way while crossing the road.
“He stepped out and a taxi just brushed across his chest,” Kathy Etchingham says.
“I dragged him by the back of his coat and pulled him back. You’ve got to look the other way I told him.”
Kathy Etchingham discovered that Hendrix was an “experienced and imaginative” lover who could make sex more romantic than she’d ever known it before.
But the next morning, the couple were interrupted at the hotel by another woman with designs on the young guitarist.
“She burst into the room at about 11 in the morning, screaming, swearing and calling him a bastard,” Kathy Etchingham says.
“She grabbed a guitar, lifted it by the neck and was poised to bring it down on our heads while we were in bed.”
“I dived under the covers and half under Jimi, while he shouted, Put it Down, Put it Down.”
The guitar was Jimi Hendrix’s only instrument at the time, and he was desperate to stop it being smashed.
To the couple’s relief, the woman eventually backed down, merely flouncing out with the guitar before disappearing in a blue Jaguar.
Jimi Hendrix eventually got his guitar back and started living with Kathy Etchingham. The couple, both former runaways, had a lot in common.
In long, late-night conversations, Jimi Hendrix would tell her how his father used to beat him “senseless” for trying to learn the guitar by putting string on a broom. Kathy Etchingham told him about her alcoholic father and how her mother had walked out on the family when she was 10.
In a romantic gesture, the guitarist cut off a lock of his girlfriend’s hair with scissors. Following a voodoo superstition, he put it in his boots so that his body would always be in contact with part of hers.
“Jimi was very funny, very entertaining,” says Kathy Etchingham.
“I used to take him round to my friend, Brenda, who’d just had a baby. He didn’t have much money and he bought the baby a little toy pony. That was very sweet.”
Kathy Etchingham, Jimi Hendrix’s former girlfriend, recalls their relationship, as fans of guitar legend anticipate the release of a new album featuring 12 previously unreleased studio tracks in March
Virtually penniless, the couple would relax by watching Coronation Street or playing board games such as Monopoly and Risk.
A particular favorite was Twister, which would usually end up with the two of them collapsing on the floor in giggles.
But the couple also had blazing rows – particularly over cooking. One such argument, she says, led to the composition of a famous Jimi Hendrix song.
That evening, Kathy Etchingham was trying to make mashed potato and not doing a very good job of it.
“He comes along and tastes them with a fork and says they’re all lumpy,” she recalls.
“I knew he couldn’t cook himself and that’s how the argument started. It ended with my screaming and shouting, throwing the plates on the floor and marching out.”
Kathy Etchingham spent the night at a friend’s and Jimi Hendrix missed her so much that he sat down to write one of his biggest hits, The Wind Cries Mary.
Mary is Kathy Etchingham’s middle name and the guitarist would sometimes use it to wind her up. That may be why when she first heard the song, she was distinctly underwhelmed.
“It was just the twanging of an electric guitar disconnected,” she says.
“It was only when it was recorded that I realized it was a nice, sad song – he was obviously a bit upset.”
The Wind Cries Mary was released in 1967 and featured in the US release of his debut album Are You Experienced?.
By this stage, Jimi Hendrix was on the way to being one of the biggest stars in 60s London, and early in the year, he played two famous gigs at the tiny Marquee Club.
“Jimi was fresh and sounded fantastic. Everybody’s eyes were glued to him,” Kathy Etchingham says.
The audiences included all the stars of the era – from the Beatles to Eric Clapton. They were knocked out by Jimi Hendrix’s completely new way of playing the electric guitar and his flamboyant performances.
“It was so packed you could hardly breathe,” she says.
“Everyone was riveted to the floor, standing there sweating.”
Within a year, songs such as Wind Cries Mary, Foxy Lady and Purple Haze made Jimi Hendrix a global superstar. But that meant he started disappearing on long tours of the US and the lifestyle put his relationship under increasing strain.
“All these hangers-on appeared,” Kathy Etchingham says.
“They were dodgy, undesirable people, with an aggressive edge to them. I really didn’t like that atmosphere and it was the beginning of the end.”
Katy Etchingham says that as drink and drugs took hold, Jimi Hendrix’s sweet character started to change. He would get nasty with people, she says, and he started smashing up hotel rooms.
“He started to look really rough. His hair was breaking off, he didn’t have healthy skin, he looked as if he’d aged 10 years in two and a half.”
Kathy Etchingham decided she had to move on and the couple split up in 1969.
By the summer of the following year, Jimi Hendrix was in such a state that on one occasion his entourage panicked and called Kathy Etchingham over to his hotel room. They thought she was the only person who could calm him down.
“Everybody was frightened to go in, but I walked in and he was fine with me.”
Kathy Etchingham could see that the glass table in the hotel suite was smashed and that Jimi Hendrix had the heating on full blast even though it was a warm day.
“He said he had a terrible cold,” she says.
“I got a flannel and wiped his forehead. I didn’t know what was wrong so I was made sure he was comfortable in bed and left.”
Kathy Etchingham saw Jimi Hendrix for the last time a few weeks later.
“I bumped into him in Kensington antique market,” she says.
“He was buying belts or scarves. And he sort of <<squidged>> me and invited me over to his hotel.
“I said I might – but that was it. I never saw him again. The next morning he was dead.”
Jimi Hendrix had died after choking on his own vomit. Initially, Kathy Etchingham felt guilty about not going to visit him, but now, she says, she realizes it probably wouldn’t have made any difference.
“To begin with, I thought that if I’d gone round, maybe it wouldn’t have happened. But then I realized we’d probably have had a drink and a chat. I’d have left and he’d still have done the same thing that happened that night.
“I wish that I’d gone round, but I didn’t and that’s all there is to it,” she adds.
Kathy Etchingham now lives abroad. She has written a memoir called Through Gypsy Eyes, after another Jimi Hendrix song that she inspired.
She wants Jimi Hendrix to be remembered not just as a guitar superhero, but also as a “really lovely person – a natural, normal human being”.
The White House has released a picture of President Barack Obama skeet-shooting – seemingly to settle a row over whether he had fired a gun before.
Barack Obama recently told the The New Republic magazine: “Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time.”
The photo, dated 4 August 2012, shows Barack Obama standing in jeans, polo shirt, sunglasses and ear defenders, aiming a shotgun that has a smoking barrel.
The president is due in Minneapolis on Monday to discuss his gun-control proposals.
Asked this week why more had not been said about Barack Obama’s shooting habits before, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said: “Because when he goes to Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs.”
The photograph apparently shows Barack Obama shooting clay targets on the range at the Maryland retreat.
The White House has released a picture of President Barack Obama skeet-shooting, seemingly to settle a row over whether he had fired a gun before
The New Republic interview, carried in the magazine’s February 11 issue, quotes Barack Obama as saying he has great respect for US hunting traditions, while advising gun-control advocates to be better listeners in the firearms debate.
“I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations,” the president is quoted as saying.
“And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake. Part of being able to move this forward is understanding the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas.
“And if you grew up and your dad gave you a hunting rifle when you were 10, and you went out and spent the day with him and your uncles, and that became part of your family’s traditions, you can see why you’d be pretty protective of that.”
“So it’s trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months. And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes,” Barack Obama said.
President Barack Obama last month proposed sweeping measures on guns, including a renewed ban on assault rifles and wider background checks on buyers.
The announcement came a month after the 14 killings of 20 children and six adults at a primary school in Connecticut.
Abu Sayyaf Islamist militants in the Philippines have released two Filipino members of a TV crew, who were kidnapped last June.
Ramel Vela and Roland Letriro have been taken to a hospital in the southern Sulu province after their release. It is unclear why the Jordanian reporter they were working with was not freed.
The men were captured as they set out to interview Abu Sayyaf militants, a group linked to al-Qaeda.
A number of foreigners are being held for ransom in the southern Philippines.
Areas within Sulu province, whose capital is Jolo, and the wider region are used as bases by Islamist militants and rebel groups.
Ramel Vela, a cameraman, and Roland Letriro, an audio technician, were taken hostage as they set out to interview Abu Sayyaf militants in their jungle lair in the autonomous Sulu island province.
“They really lost weight because they were constantly under stress each day,” provincial police chief Antonio Freyra told the Associated Press.
Ramel Vela and Roland Letriro have been taken to a hospital in the southern Sulu province after their release
A Jordanian reporter, Abdulla Atyani, captured along with Ramel Vela and Roland Letriro, is believed to still be in captivity, Antonio Freya said.
Meanwhile, Warren Rodwell, an Australian kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf militants in 2011, was shown alive in a video posted on social media last December.
Looking thin and haggard in the video, Warren Rodwell said: “I personally hold no hope at all for being released.”
The Abu Sayyaf is on the US list of terrorist organizations.
It is considered the smallest and most radical of the extremist movements in the southern Philippines.
The group remains a security threat in the impoverished region where minority Muslims have been fighting for self-rule for decades.
The main Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, recently signed a peace accord with the government in exchange for broad autonomy.
But the Abu Sayyaf were among the rebel groups who refused to sign up to the peace deal.
Jennifer O’Neill, Lady Gaga’s former personal assistant, who is currently suing the singer for unpaid overtime, has revealed in court depositions that she shared the same bed as Gaga during her Monster’s Ball tour in 2010.
“I was by her side virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Jennifer O’Neill said in her deposition.
“That includes sleeping in the same bed with her. Because she did not sleep alone.”
When asked if it was requirement for Jennifer O’Neill to share the same sleeping quarters with Lady Gaga, she responded: “I felt it was.”
Jennifer O’Neill said that she was the only member of Lady Gaga’s entourage that didn’t have her own hotel room.
“Unlike anybody else on that tour, I did not have my own hotel room. I was not asked if I wanted my own hotel room,” she said.
“I had no privacy, no chance to talk to any family, no chance to talk to any friends, no chance to have sex if I wanted to have sex. There was no chance to do anything.”
In the deposition documents, obtained by the New York Post, Jennifer O’Neill does not make any suggestion that she and Lady Gaga had any kind of sexual relationship.
But she claims that Lady Gaga was incredibly demanding, not giving her anytime to do anything for herself.
“And she was quite irate that she couldn’t reach me on my phone a couple of times, and was quite angry and asked me why she was paying for this hotel room if I was unreachable,” Jennifer O’Neill said in the deposition.
Jennifer O’Neill, Lady Gaga’s former personal assistant, has revealed she shared the same bed as Gaga during her Monster’s Ball tour in 2010
Jennifer O’Neill also describes one time that Lady Gaga made several demands whist O’Neill was trying to get her hair cut.
“She might have said <<I need some tea, I need – can you get my computer for me, can you get my phone, my battery is dead, I need a tampon, the toilet doesn’t flush>>,” Jennifer O’Neill said.
“Another thing she would do in the middle of the night, would be wake me up to have me change the DVD in the DVD player because she didn’t want to watch that DVD anymore and she couldn’t get up to walk across the room to change the DVD herself.”
Lady Gaga tweeted somewhat of a response to the new emerging details on her Twitter account on Saturday, claiming that Jennifer O’Neill had, as well as being her personal assistant, been one of her good friends.
“Everyone’s headlines need an updating. <<former assistant>> is actually <<my best friend from NY since I was 19>>. Painful stuff,” she wrote.
Jennifer O’Neill, from Long Island, launched her legal action against Lady Gaga, claiming she was overworked and underpaid, at the end of last year.
She was employed by the star for 13 months, accompanying her on her Monster Ball world tour in 2011.
Jennifer O’Neill, 41, alleges that she put in 7,168 hours of unpaid overtime and is now owed more than $380,000, according to the report in the New York Post.
The former personal assistant claims she had to cater to Lady Gaga’s at times unreasonable demands around the clock.
Jennifer O’Neill insists she had to ensure “the promptness of a towel following a shower and serving as a personal alarm clock to keep [Gaga] on schedule”.
She was not given breaks for meals “or, at times, even sleep”, and needed to be available at the star’s “earliest waking hour” or for “spontaneous, random matters in the middle of the night”, according to the court papers.
Jennifer O’Neill, who was paid $75,000-a-year, also had to ensue “the availability of chosen outfits”. Lady Gaga is, of course, famous for her eccentric wardrobe and once wore a meat dress to MTV Video Music Awards.
She filed the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court in December against Lady Gaga’s Mermaid Touring company for unpaid overtime.
Lady Gaga dismissed Jennifer O’Neill’s lawsuit in a video-taped deposition from August last year in New York, saying: “[Jennifer is a] f***ing hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn.
“She thinks she’s just like the queen of the universe. And, you know what, she didn’t want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I’m the queen of the universe every day.
“She knew there was no overtime, and I never paid her overtime the first time I hired her, so why would she be paid overtime the second time? This whole case is b******* and you know it.”
Jennifer O’Neill is not the first personal assistant to complain about working for Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta.
Former employee Angela Ciemny also claimed she was required to sleep with Lady Gaga most nights because she refused to be alone, according to the book Poker Face: The Rise and Rise of Lady Gaga.
Ben and Jerry’s has unveiled a new ice cream dedicated to 30 Rock series, aptly called Liz Lemon.
Ben and Jerry’s launched its new lemon and blueberry fro-yo to coincide with the airing of the show’s final episode.
“It’s as sweet and tart as Liz Lemon herself,” said Jerry Greenfield, Ben & Jerry’s co-founder and apparent 30 Rock fan, at the flavor’s unveiling event on Thursday night.
The popular NBC comedy starring Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan was in its seventh season when it wrapped up last night.
30 Rock – written by Tina Fey, 42, who plays the goofy but loveable main character Liz Lemon – is loosely based on her own experiences as head writer on Saturday Night Live, which is filmed at the NBC studios headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Center.
Tina Fey – who hosted the Golden Globes this year alongside fellow comedian and friend Amy Poehler – has enjoyed tremendous success for her award-winning sitcom.
Funnily enough, the writer and actress who inspired the new Greek fro-yo flavor is herself of Greek descent.
Ben and Jerry’s are known for their celebrity- and pop culture-inspired ice creams, with notable flavors including Cherry Garcia, Phish Food and Monty Python’s Vermonty Python.
This is not the first time that 30 Rock’s cast members have inspired the ice cream producer.
Ben and Jerry’s has unveiled a new ice cream dedicated to 30 Rock series, aptly called Liz Lemon
Last year the company brought out an ice cream called Schweddy Balls, named for a Saturday Night Live skit featuring Tina Fey’s co-star, Alec Baldwin.
Ben and Jerry’s has also named ice creams after other comedians in the past, with flavors like Stephen Colbert’s American Dream and Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night Snack.
Liz Lemon will hit Ben and Jerry’s stores and frozen food aisles in the next few weeks.
Other celebrity Ben & Jerry’s flavors
Cherry Garcia. Inspired by: Grateful Dead lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia. Ingredients: Cherry ice cream, cherries, fudge flakes
Google is offering $3.14159 million in cash rewards for successful hacks of its Chrome operating system at this year’s Pwnium hacking contest.
The figure is a nod to pi, an irrational number that has intrigued mathematicians for thousands of years.
Previously Google has offered reward of $1 million and $2 million to crack its systems.
The most likely outcome is that multiple hacks momentarily compromise the system with several contestants earning up to $100,000 each, or $150,000 should their hack survive a system reboot.
For a hack to count, it must be delivered via webpages on a basic-model Samsung 550 Chromebook over a Wi-Fi connection.
“We believe these larger rewards reflect the additional challenge involved with tackling the security defenses of Chrome OS, compared to traditional operating systems,” Google Chrome developer Chris Evans wrote.
Google is offering $3.14159 million in cash rewards for successful hacks of its Chrome operating system at this year’s Pwnium hacking contest
Google’s previous contests – CanSecWest 2012 and Hack in the Box – focused on compromising the Chrome browser but not the same-named OS.
Pwnium was started last year as an alternative to the Pwn2Own contest after the latter temporarily changed its rules so that successful hackers didn’t have to show their methods.
For some commercial hackers who only sell their secrets to the highest bidder the change was welcome.
For Pwnium, contests can keep their true identities a secret. A teenager only identified as Pinkie Pie – a name shared by a My Little Pony character – has won $60,000 at each Pwnium.
While Google calls Chrome OS its most secure operating system its market share is so small it hasn’t yet faced a real world field-test.
However, the Pwn2Own prize for cracking the Chrome browser is $100,000 but only $60,000 for Firefox and $65,000 for Safari. Internet Explorer running on Windows 8 wins $100,000 and IE 9 on Windows 7 nets $75,000.
Pwn2Own winners also get to keep the contest provided laptops.
Pwnium hasn’t said whether winners will be able to leave with their Chromebooks but as they only run $450 is likely the company won’t lose sleep over the losses.
Google has never once paid out the full amount offered for a Chrome browser crack.
Turkish Marxist group Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) has claimed it carried a suicide attack on the US embassy in Ankara on Friday.
DHKP-C said the “act of self-sacrifice” had targeted the US, which the group called “murderer of the people of the world”.
The bomber and a guard were killed in the attack at a side entrance of the heavily guarded compound.
The US has warned its citizens not to visit diplomatic missions in Turkey until further notice.
In an online statement the DHKP-C said: “Our warrior Alisan Sanli carried out an act of self-sacrifice on 1 February 2013, by entering the Ankara embassy of the United States, murderer of the people of the world.”
Turkey and the US have denounced the incident as terrorism.
A number of illegal groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to leftist and Islamist militants have launched attacks in Turkey in recent years.
Turkish Marxist group Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) has claimed it carried a suicide attack on the US embassy in Ankara on Friday
The US state department said a Turkish woman visiting the embassy had been seriously hurt and several staff members had suffered minor injuries.
The DHKP-C is designated a terrorist organization in the US and Europe.
The extreme-left group has been blamed for a number of attacks since the 1970s, including some on US diplomatic missions.
Turkish police carried out a series of raids on suspected members in January.
The embassy building is heavily protected but the US has had long-standing plans to move its compound elsewhere for security reasons.
It was recently reported to be in the final stages of a deal to choose an alternative location.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has strongly denied Spanish media claims that he and other members of the governing Popular Party received secret payments.
“I have never received nor distributed undeclared money,” Mariano Rajoy said, stressing that he would not resign.
El Pais newspaper published photographs of ledgers showing payments to Popular Party figures on Thursday.
It said Mariano Rajoy had collected 25,200 euros ($34,000) a year between 1997 and 2008.
Mariano Rajoy and his party were elected by a landslide in November 2011 on a promise to reduce the high public deficit.
Addressing the PP national executive meeting in an extraordinary session to discuss the El Pais allegations in Madrid, Mariano Rajoy said: “It is not true that we received cash that we hid from tax officials.”
He added he would publish on the party’s website full details of his income and assets.
PM Mariano Rajoy has strongly denied Spanish media claims that he and other members of the governing Popular Party received secret payments
As Mariano Rajoy spoke, several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the party headquarters shouting “thieves” and “resign”.
El Pais said the photographs it had published were of ledgers kept by former treasurers Luis Barcenas and Alvaro Lapuerta between 1990 and 2009.
Money was allegedly paid by firms via Luis Barcenas, who stepped down in 2009 and is currently under investigation for money-laundering.
Investigators recently revealed that Luis Barcenas held a Swiss bank account which at one point held as much as 22 million euros ($30 million).
Until 2007, Spanish political parties were allowed to receive anonymous donations.
Spaniards have been asked to accept painful austerity measures as the government battles to avoid an international bailout. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate has reached a record 26%.
The allegations raise ethical questions about the Popular Party’s dealings during the period of Spain’s building boom, when politicians granted large numbers of development contracts.
The party has denied making any “systematic payment to certain people of money other than their monthly wages”.
Pennsylvania’s famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil gave his annual prediction of how long winter will last.
Phil emerged from his lair for Groundhog Day in front of a crowd of thousands but didn’t see his shadow. According to legend, that’s a sign spring will come early this year.
If the groundhog sees his shadow on February 2 on Gobbler’s Knob, winter will allegedly last six more weeks.
The prediction is made during a ceremony overseen by a group called the Inner Circle. Members don top hats and tuxedos for the ceremony on Groundhog Day each year.
Bill Deeley, president of the Inner Circle, says that after “consulting” with Phil, he makes the call in deciphering what the world’s Punxsutawney Phil has to say about the weather.
Phil is known as the “seer of seers” and “sage of sages”. Organizers predicted about 20,000 people this weekend, a larger-than-normal crowd because Groundhog Day fell on a weekend.
Phil’s got company in the forecasting department. There’s Staten Island Chuck, in New York; General Beauregard Lee, in Atlanta; and Wiarton Willie, in Wiarton, Ontario, among others noted by the National Climactic Data Center “Groundhog Day” Web page.
“Punxsutawney can’t keep something this big to itself,” the Data Center said. “Other prognosticating rodents are popping up to claim a piece of the action.”
Pennsylvania’s famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil gave his annual prediction of how long winter will last
Phil is the original – and the best, Punxsutawney partisans insist.
The 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray brought even more notoriety to the Pennsylvania party. The record attendance was about 30,000 the year after the movie’s release, said Katie Donald, executive director of the Groundhog Club. About 13,000 attend if February 2 falls on a weekday.
Phil’s predictions, of course, are not always right on. Last year, for example, he told people to prepare for six more weeks of winter, a minority opinion among his groundhog brethren. The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University later listed that January to June as the warmest seven-month period since systematic records began being kept in 1895.
France’s President Francois Hollande is visiting Mali, three weeks after French-led troops launched an offensive to oust Islamist rebels from the country’s north.
Francois Hollande was welcomed by dignitaries and residents in Timbuktu, six days after the city was recaptured.
He is expected to thank the French soldiers and stress the need for an African force to replace them swiftly.
Meanwhile, the UN has warned of the risk of reprisal attacks against Tuareg and Arab communities in northern Mali.
The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, said there had been serious allegations of human rights violations committed by the Malian army, including summary executions and disappearances.
There had also been reports of incidents of mob lynching and looting of properties belonging to Arab and Tuareg communities, which had been accused of supporting armed Islamist groups, Adama Dieng added.
“I call on the Malian army to discharge its responsibility to protect all populations, irrespective of their race or ethnicity,” he said.
The allegations came as heavily-armored columns of French and Malian troops continued their advance in northern Mali.
They are attempting to secure the north-eastern city of Kidal, the militants’ last stronghold, having captured the airport on Wednesday.
France’s President Francois Hollande is visiting Mali, three weeks after French-led troops launched an offensive to oust Islamist rebels from the country’s north
Francois Hollande flew into the central town of Sevare on Saturday morning, accompanied by his ministers of defence, foreign affairs and development. Mali’s interim President, Dioncounda Traore, met them at the airport.
They then flew to Timbuktu’s airport before being driven to the 700-year-old mud mosque of Djingareyber and the Ahmed Baba Institute, where fleeing militants set fire to about 2,000 priceless manuscripts.
Thousands of locals gathered in the city’s main square to welcome Francois Hollande. Many changed “Vive la France” and praised the president for ordering the military intervention in France’s former colony.
“The women of Timbuktu will thank Francois Hollande forever,” 53-year-old Fanta Diarra Toure told the AFP news agency.
“We must tell him that he has cut down the tree but still has to tear up its roots,” she added, referring to the Islamist militants.
Speaking on Friday before he flew to Mali, Francois Hollande said he wanted “to express to our soldiers all our support, encouragement and pride”.
“I’m also going to ensure that African forces come and join us as quickly as possible and to tell them we need them for this international force,” he added.
He said he wanted Mali’s transitional government to restore democracy soon and begin a political dialogue with opposition groups in the north.
However, this is not quite a “mission accomplished” moment for Francois Hollande, because the Islamist militants remain a threat.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Friday that the French-led forces had recaptured the major population centres “must faster” than he had expected, but warned that they now had to ensure long-term security.
“They have made tremendous progress, I give them a lot of credit,” he told the AFP news agency.
“But the challenge now is to make sure that you can maintain that security and that you are not overstretched and that, ultimately, as you begin to pull back, that the other African nations are prepared to move in and fill the gap of providing security.”
Pakistani Talibans have attacked an army checkpoint, killing 13 soldiers and 10 civilians, officials say.
The raid took place in the town of Serai Naurang in north-west Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province early on Saturday, and lasted several hours.
Twelve militants were killed in the attack, some of them suicide bombers, the officials said.
Pakistan Taliban says the attack was in response to the death of two commanders in a drone strike last month.
“Pakistan has been co-operating with the US in its drone strikes that killed our two senior commanders, Faisal Khan and Toofani, and the attack on military camp was the revenge of their killing,” a Taliban spokesman said, quoted by Reuters news agency.
Pakistani officials have often been critical of drone strikes, but analysts say that on some occasions it has privately sanctioned such actions.
Pakistani Talibans have attacked an army checkpoint, killing 13 soldiers and 10 civilians
Police officer Arif Khan said between 25 to 30 militants were involved in the attack.
The Taliban said four of the attackers were suicide bombers.
Security sources said the militants were armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, and said they included suicide bombers.
At least eight soldiers were wounded, the sources said.
The 10 civilians, including three women and three children, were killed in a nearby house.
There are conflicting reports about whether the house was hit by a rocket or the militants broke into it.
UK ticketing giant Live Nation’s site put up a promotional poster for Beyonce’s not-yet-announced world tour dubbed “The Mrs. Carter Show”.
In the promotional image published Friday, Beyonce Knowles looks every bit the queen of pop with a billowing Victorian updo topped with a crown and golden royal-looking garb.
“I may have an announcement after the performance,” Beyonce said regarding touring plans at Thursday’s Super Bowl press conference.
“Fans should just stay tuned to see.”
The tour’s name is a direct reference to Beyonce’s husband Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, and it fuels speculation that the couple might perform together.
There were already rumors the 43-year-old rap star would join Beyonce onstage when she performs during this Sunday’s Super Bowl XLVII half-time show.
In the past, the music power couple have collaborated on several tracks, including 03 Bonnie & Clyde, Crazy In Love, and Déjà Vu.
An estimated 111.3 million people tuned into last year’s Super Bowl, which featured a Cleopatra-style Madonna Voguing her way through a medley of hits.
Live Nation’s site put up a promotional poster for Beyonce’s not-yet-announced world tour dubbed “The Mrs. Carter Show”
The last time Beyonce hit the road was her I Am… Tour, which grossed $119.5 million in 2009.
Beyonce’s Destiny’s Child bandmates, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, are also rumored to be joining her onstage.
The girl-group trio just released their first single in eight years, Nuclear, on their compilation Love Songs.
Speaking of album releases, Beyonce is said to have already recorded 50 songs while working on her follow-up album to 4.
Up to 250,000 Twitter users have had their accounts hacked in the latest of a string of high-profile internet security breaches.
Twitter’s information security director Bob Lord said users’ passwords had been stolen, as well as usernames, emails and other data.
Affected users have had passwords invalidated and have been sent emails informing them.
Bob Lord said the attack “was not the work of amateurs”.
He said it appeared similar to recent attacks on the New York Times and others.
The newspaper reported this week that their computer systems had been breached by China-based hackers
Bob Lord said in a blog post Twitter had discovered unauthorized attempts to access data held by the website, including one attack that was identified and stopped moments after it was detected.
“This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident,” he wrote.
Bob Lord did not say who had carried out the attack, but added: “The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked.”
“For that reason we felt that it was important to publicize this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the internet safer for all users.”
Up to 250,000 Twitter users have had their accounts hacked in the latest of a string of high-profile internet security breaches
Internet security specialist Graham Cluley warned Twitter’s announcement that emails would be sent to users may prompt a spate of spam emails “phishing” for sensitive information.
He says people should be cautious about opening emails which appear to be from Twitter.
“You have to be careful if you get hold of one of these emails because, of course, it could equally be a phishing attack – it could be someone pretending to be Twitter.
“So, log into the Twitter site as normal and try and log in to your account and, if there’s a problem, that’s when you actually have to try and reset your password.”
On Thursday the New York Times linked the attack to a story it published alleging relatives of former Premier Wen Jiabao controlled assets worth billions of dollars.
China’s foreign ministry dismissed the New York Times’ accusations as “groundless” and “totally irresponsible”.
Japanese pop star Minami Minegishi has shaved her head and offered a filmed apology after breaking her management firm’s rules by spending a night with her boyfriend.
A sobbing Minami Minegishi apologized to her fans and said she did not want to leave the band AKB48, in the video seen by millions on YouTube.
The production company behind AKB48 said Minami Minegishi, 20, had failed to abide by its cardinal rule – no dating.
But fans have defended her, saying she is entitled to a normal life.
Head shaving is a traditional form of showing contrition in Japan.
Minami Minegishi’s apology came hours after a tabloid newspaper published photographs of her leaving the apartment of her boyfriend, Alan Shirahama, a dancer in a boy band.
In the video posted on AKB48’s official website, Minami Minegishi said she had made the decision to shave off her long hair to show contrition for her “thoughtless and immature” actions.
“I don’t believe just doing this means I can be forgiven for what I did, but the first thing I thought was that I don’t want to quit AKB48,” she said.
At times sobbing and bowing her head during the nearly four-minute-long video, Minami Minegishi also said: “If it is possible, I wish from the bottom of my heart to stay in the band. Everything I did is entirely my fault. I am so sorry.”
Minami Minegishi has shaved her head and offered a filmed apology after breaking her management firm’s rules by spending a night with her boyfriend
Minami Minegishi was one of the original members of AKB48 when it was launched by producer Yasushi Akimoto in 2005. The band is made up of some 90 girls – whose ages range from mid teens to early 20s – who, in teams, appear daily in their own theatre and regularly on television, in adverts, and in magazines.
They portray an image of cuteness known as “kawaii”, and have become a huge phenomenon both in Japan and increasingly in other Asian countries, correspondents say.
The condition for being part of such a successful act is that the girls must not date boys, so as not to shatter their fans’ illusions.
AKB48’s management office said Minami Minegishi had been demoted to a trainee team as punishment “for causing a nuisance to the fans”.
But author and critic Hiroki Azuma said it was “disgusting” that the star felt she should resort to a traditional act of contrition when the only rules she had broken were those of her band’s.
Some fans and commentators say Minami Minegishi went too far with her public apology, and that it was unnecessary.
“What’s the point of this public execution show? It’s like something from the war or a totalitarian state,” one fan said on Twitter.
Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who made a hoax call to the UK hospital treating Kate Middleton, will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said.
Mel Greig and Michael Christian phoned the King Edward VII’s Hospital pretending to be members of the Royal Family asking about Kate Middleton’s treatment for severe morning sickness.
Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead three days after taking the call.
The CPS said there was no evidence to support a charge of manslaughter.
Although it said that there was some evidence to warrant further investigation of offences under the Data Protection Act, the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003, it added that this would not take place as any potential prosecution would not be in the public interest.
Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, who made a hoax call to the UK hospital treating Kate Middleton, will not face charges
Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime at the CPS, said a number of issues had been taken into account in reaching its conclusion.
“It is not possible to extradite individuals from Australia in respect of the potential offences in question. However misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank,” he said.
“The consequences in this case were very sad. We send our sincere condolences to Jacintha Saldanha’s family.”
Last December, the pair, posing as the Queen and Prince of Wales, tricked Jacintha Saldanha into transferring the call to a colleague who then described Catherine’s condition in detail.
Jacintha Saldanha was found hanged in nurses accommodation close to the hospital, after apparently taking her own life.
Kate Middleton had been admitted to hospital suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, acute morning sickness.
Google has agreed to create a 60 million euro ($82 million) fund to help French media organizations improve their internet operations.
It follows two months of negotiations after local news sites had demanded payment for the privilege of letting the search giant display their links.
The French government had threatened to tax the revenue Google made from posting ads alongside the results.
The US firm had retorted it might stop indexing French papers’ articles.
In addition to the creating the Digital Publishing Innovation Fund, Google has agreed to give French media access to its advertising platforms at a reduced cost.
The compromise allows it to avoid paying an ongoing licensing fee.
“France is proud to have reached this agreement with Google, the first of its kind in the world,” the French president’s office said on Twitter.
“It appears Google have opened the door to other countries’ newspapers doing the same thing,” said Ian Maude, head of internet at Enders Analysis.
“This sets a precedent which other publishers may pursue in their own negotiations.”
Google has agreed to create a 60 million euro fund to help French media organizations improve their internet operations
After the news was announced, Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, wrote on his company’s blog: “These agreements show that through business and technology partnerships we can help stimulate digital innovation for the benefit of consumers, our partners and the wider web.”
The search giant has also made efforts to resolve a separate European dispute.
It has filed proposals with the European Commission stating how it intends to deal with complaints made by Microsoft and more than a dozen other companies that it had broken competition rules.
The European regulator will now consider Google’s proposals, which have not been disclosed.
If it rejects them and finds the firm has broken its rules, it has the power to fine the firm up to 10% of its global turnover which could amount to more than $4 billion.
